I know that shouldn't be really concerned about this question because I'm not even in university yet. But my brother failed twice on the MCAT and my parents were outraged at him. I also know a few other close relatives that failed (maybe it's just my family that is horribly failing the MCAT). <br />The arguments in my house usually take place over this test, and I was just curious is the test really that hard? Like what percentage of people usually pass from your own knowledge?<br />

The MCAT is a tough test, however this does not mean that you will fail it too. As I know it, no one has proved that failing the MCAT has a genetic link. So it is best that you prepare for it by visiting

http://www.pre-med.info

Soon you will have access to a FREE MCAT prep book and have the option to buy the HOW TO GET INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL ebook.

Good Luck!

To be honest with you, it's not as hard as people tell you it is. It'll take you around 15 weeks to be fully prepared for this test. You can take a prep course, which i don't really suggest or you can study by yourself, which i do highly suggest. Buy books for Mcat, I used examcrackers and berkley review. Also take a lot of practice test and make sure you understand all the concepts. The more effort you put into this test the better you will do.

Make sure you do not study the night before or stay up late stressing about it. Excerise, eat well and prepare - you'll be fine.

Also the best time to take mcat and increase your odds would be if you took mcat during a semester because very few students take it around that time so it helps when they compare you to the curve, mean, stnd deviation, etc.

Some students dont do well due to lack of preparation, or they simply don't know what they're doing.

You'll be fine, have some confidence in yourself. Goodluck!

well i really want to say i heard its probably the hardest test

i don't understand what you mean by failing this test, would you mind telling people what your brother got.. but basically if you said he failed twice (below 20), his chance of getting into a very good medical school is very low...(i just failed verbal too =()

the MCAT is passage base, it is divided into 3 sections, verbal, physical sci and biological sci, and each section is 15 points, so a total of 45. i believe less than 30% of the test takers make it to above 35 which is only a decent score to get into a good MD school. but if you get 24 and above you should have a chace for some DO or MD schools still. and out of those who apply to med school from US and canada, only 35% can get a seat. so parents really shouldn't push their kids so hard on this kind of process.

Yeah, just like the previous person posted, I'm not sure what you mean by &quot;passing/failing&quot; the MCAT. You get a score in the 3 major sections (no one cares about the stupid essay section quite frankly which was scored from J through T as I recall when I took it in 1996). I know it's been a long time since then, but I don't imagine that much has changed since then. No one tells you that you pass or fail, you just get scores which correspond to percentile rankings in each of the sections. Depending on how competitive the applicant pool is on a given year will determine what kind of score is considered competitive. Also, the MCAT is just one factor that allopathic schools look at. The admission committees tend to keep their criteria for accepting/declining a candidate shrouded in secrecy, so it's really a crap shoot in many ways.

I took the Kaplan Test Prep course, and I studied like a banshee for two months prior to the test and had a cumulative score of 40, which placed me in the 99%ile in each section, so I was delighted with that. I also agree with the previous author, that there's no reason that one should have to enroll in a formal test prep course, rather spend the money on the prep books and sample tests. About half the people I knew took a formal course and half didn't and there was no significant difference in how either of the groups performed on the test.

The test is more an assesment of critical thinking rather than how well one remembers obscure details from Organic Chemistry, etc. They won't ask about Friedal-Crafts Acylation or Wittig reaction and bs like that... rather, they ask you to apply fundamental knowledge in the Physical and Biological Sciences to a given passage and render the most reasonable answer... but more often than not, just critically assessing the passage in the question will supply the answer to the question rather than regurgitation of obscure formulas or equations.

I did well on the Verbal Reasoning Section, but frankly I found that to be the hardest. It's really more a test of critical assesment of a passage, asking the reader to draw inferences from that given passage. I guess the only advice I can give you about this section which seemed to be a problem for many of my friends is to do a lot of practice tests in this area and try to get through as quickly as possible. My biggest problem was getting through the test sections before the time was up. Again, practicing a lot of sample tests should be the best way to improve speed.

Most importantly, I think it should be stressed that the MCAT is hardly a predictor of how well one will do in Med School much less of how good a Doctor one will make. In my humble opinion it simply provides a standardized platform on which candidates can be compared. Someone who may not have done that well in his undergrad courses can be rescued by attaining a very good score on the MCAT and thus helping him/her get into allopathic medical school.

The questions on the actual exam are, indeed, quite similar to the sample materials that come with the application materials.